FBI, IRS probes may blow open steroid scandal, By: TIM DAHLBERG, AP

6-11-06

There are few things in life worse than a scorned mistress who talks too much.

Barry Bonds knows that better than most. A woman named Kimberly Bell is a big part of the reason he may soon find himself in some serious trouble with the law.

For that, the feds are grateful. But even they don't want Bell talking too much these days.

By various accounts, Bell has spilled the beans about both alleged steroid use by Bonds and a reported $80,000 US in allegedly undeclared income the slugger gave her to buy a house in Arizona.

Someone like that is too good to share. At least that's the attitude the FBI has taken by telling Bud Selig's buddy and chief investigator, George Mitchell, to back off and leave Bell alone while they go about gathering dirt on Bonds.

The feds, it seems, don't want Bell saying so many things to so many people that her story gets so jumbled up it can be picked apart by any third-year law student.

But what they really don't want is and its belated investigation of steroid use getting in the way of what is turning into an scandal that could rock the sport way beyond anything Bonds may or may not have done with BALCO.

Besides, by the time enterprising IRS investigator Jeff Novitzky and his crew are done, there won't be any need for baseball's own in-house probe. Who needs a lame report to the commissioner when you'll have players publicly pointing fingers at each other as they desperately try to stay out of jail?

If the events of the past week have shown anything, it's the feds are wielding the proverbial hammer -- and they're not afraid to use it.

While Mitchell sends letters to players politely asking them to co-operate, federal agents are searching Jason Grimsley's house. While baseball investigators talk to peripheral figures, the feds are twisting arms and following trails.

Much to the dismay of baseball and its juiced players, the hunt for steroid users didn't end in San Francisco. Judging from an affidavit filed in the raid on Grimsley's house, it's spread far beyond what anyone thought only a few weeks ago.

Investigators, who had to be tipped off by somebody, trailed at least one shipment of human growth hormone to Grimsley's house. Once there, they got Grimsley to name names and even reportedly tried to get him to wear a wire when he spoke to Bonds.

Did a fellow player rat Grimsley out, or did the feds just get lucky? A lot of guys must be glancing warily at each other in the locker-rooms these days wondering who's talking, who's targeted, and who's next.

Fans have to be wondering a few things, too.

It was easy to pass off a few muscular sluggers as freaks of nature or simply superbly talented athletes. Those in the Bay Area could even close their eyes and pretend Bonds was simply filling out in middle age.

But if a journeyman relief pitcher like Grimsley with a career ERA of 4.76 was using both steroids and later HGH, how many other players are or were juiced?

Baseball's own testing in 2003 showed 6% of major league players were using steroids. But those tests were given with plenty of advance knowledge and only the dumbest got caught. The percentage of actual users has to be higher, perhaps much higher.